In the debut game of 2016 as part of the Florida Cup, the Pitmen faced the Brazilian side Fluminense in the Florida Cup. It should be noted that Viktor Kovalenko, Wellington Nem and Facundo Ferreyra took to the pitch in the starting line-up. In general, Mircea Lucescu fielded a full-strength squad for this match. At the same time, the opposition coach Eduardo Baptistа left his main star Ronaldinho on the subs’ bench.

First half

The opening stages of the game saw medium tempo. The teams tried to create dangerous situations through long passes. In one of the episodes, after a diagonal pass from Rakytskyy, Ismaily darted into the opposition penalty area but the goalkeeper kept out the Pitman’s shot. The Brazilian team responded with a similar attacking move but a pass to Diego Souza into the penalty area was cleared by Kucher. However, really dangerous episodes started appearing in the end of the first half. First, Risarlison found a position to shoot but his effort was parried away by Pyatov. On 44 minutes, Shakhtar came close to opening the score. Srna drilled a cross to the far post but Ferreyra failed to take a shot, and the opposition goalkeeper denied Nem a chance to strike the ball.

Second half

After the break, the game was as exciting as in the first half. As early as on 48 minutes, Teixeira made an accurate pass into the opposition penalty area for Ferreyra to put the Pitmen in front. The visitors responded with a shot from Diego Souza from twenty five metres, but Kanibolotskyy confidently saved the shot. Shakhtar kept dominating proceedings and regularly advanced to the opponents’ penalty area through quick passing. The opponents tried to come back into the game through counterattacks. In one of such episodes, Ronaldinho, who came on as sub, took a brilliant shot after a pass from Scarpa but missed the target. After ten minutes, Felipe Amorim skipped past Matvienko before feeding Magno Alves, who fired the ball past Kanibolotskyy to make it 1-1. In the end of the game, the Pitmen tried to go all-out attack, but Mircea Lucescu’s team were short of time to restore the lead.

In the next match, on 21 Januray, Shakhtar will face Corinthians. The game will kick off at 01:40, Kyiv time.